Syndicated sex columnist and partnered gay man with a kid, Dan Savage has launched the “It Gets Better” campaign in response to reading about the death of Minnesota’s Justin Aaberg and other gay teens around the country who have taken their own lives. Savage spoke with MTV News about the new campaign which can be viewed on YouTube. If you know any Minnesotans who have participated in the “It Gets Better” campaign, please let us know and we will post their videos to TheColu.mn.

“I posted something to my blog about Billy Lucas — who might not have even been gay, he wasn’t out if he was gay, and not all kids who experience anti-gay bullying are gay — but he was bullied for being gay. … And I was reading about him and about Justin Aaberg [another teenager who committed suicide after being bullied at school] in Minnesota, and the reaction as an openly gay adult, always, when you read these stories is, ‘I wish I could’ve talked to this kid for five minutes, so I could’ve told him it gets better,’ ” Savage told MTV News on Thursday (September 30). “And it occurred to me, when I was really turning over the Billy Lucas case in my mind, that I could talk to these kids. … I could use social media, I could go on YouTube, I could make a digital video and I could post it, and I could directly address them and tell them, ‘It gets better.’

“When a gay teenager commits suicide, it’s because he can’t picture a life for himself that’s filled with joy and family and pleasure and is worth sticking around for,” he continued. “So I felt it was really important that, as gay adults, we show them that our lives are good and happy and healthy and that there’s a life worth sticking around for after high school.”